The Chicarones
When Pigs Fly (Camobear Records, www.camobear.ca)
Repeated childhood viewings of The Three Amigos have, randomly enough, afflicted me with an oddly enduring fondness for that dippy comedy. Oh Steve Martin, what has become of you? Imagine the unexpected delight I felt when, mere seconds into the Chicharones' sophomore effort When Pigs Fly, I encountered a prominent sample from that very movie. Yessss!! The men behind The Chicharones -- British Columbian MCs Sleep and Josh Martinez -- more than met my expectations. On this full-length effort they've managed to produce a buoyant, supremely accessible hip-hop record built on a sturdy foundation of humourous, whip smart rhymes and carefully arranged samples. Not unlike a Buck 65/Blackalicious mash-up, When Pigs Fly balances rump-shakin' beatz with moments of restrained introspection, all carried by uncanny chemistry between Sleep and Martinez. At worst, it is a tad predictable; at best, it qualifies as a thoroughly appropriate soundtrack to both Saturday night mayhem and groggy dry-throated Sunday mornings. - PRASSANNA RAJAGOPALAN
File Next To: Hip-pop, marginally funny movies from the mid-80's.

The Constantines
Tournament of Hearts (Three Gut Records, www.threegutrecords.com)
The Constantines are rock music. The third full-length release by the Guelph-raised-Sub-Pop-signee-five-piece disappoints. They remain confident, confrontational and masculine, but more or less unexciting. The first problem with this release is that it is so heavily inspired that it can't seem to fight off any of its influences. (See late 80s hardcore, but more country.) The first track, "Draw Us Lines", opens with distorted guitars, calculated drums and Bryan Webb's harsh yet soulful vocals. Other stand out tracks are "Soon Enough", "Good Nurse", and the closing acoustic track "Windy Road." This album delivers what you'd expect from the Constantines, a simple and well constructed record, however it fails to dish out much more. - CATHERINE RIBEIRO
File Next To: That dog at the kennel that was beautiful and well trained, but you went for the puppy instead.

Luke Doucet
Broken (& Other Rogue States) (Six Shooter Records, www.sixshooterrecords.com)
This album makes two thinks readily apparent: If this shit was on CMT, I wouldn't be ashamed of my little brother back in Belleville listening to some of the worst country music this side of Garth Brooks. Luke Ducet is getting better with age, producing a mature, slick, and textured testament to the loss of love, life and the battle with the bottle. Browsing through the liner notes, it looks like this album was recorded in twelve different studios including Room 307 at the Drake Hotel, and it shows. Broken has an aged, rough-road-traveled quality that Doucet hasn't harnessed before. Album highlights include the slow-burn opener "Brother," the Tex-Mex "Emily, Please", the haunting solo "Wallow", radio-friendly "It's Not the Liquor I Miss," and probably the most beautiful song he's ever recorded, "No Love To Be Made Here Now." Doucet fans won't be disappointed with "Broken (& Other Rogue States)" and hopefully he'll pick up a few new fans on the way to country music dominance. '“ TYRONE WARNER
File Next To: Other Luke Doucet records, Blue Rodeo, Ron Sexsmith.

Maximo Park
Apply Some Pressure - Independent (www.maximopark.com)
With a sublime mix of angular post-rock riffs and effects-laden jingle-jangle, Maximo Park are solid sloganeers for Brit-music lovers. The British lads from Newcastle Upon Tyne have a good handle on what it takes to put together some catchy songs, as evident on "Apply Some Pressure" and "The Coast is Always Changing", the first two tracks of this EP. These songs showcase the band's best skills: putting together tight, powerful arrangements that progress and evolve, with smart and emotional lyrics left open for interpretation. Just don't write off Maximo Park as another group of young Brits that have shown up late to the Bloc Party. Not only will you be surprised with the band's emotional depth, but you'll find a set of great pop songs that don't worship at the altar of U2 and Coldplay. Sure, there may say a few prayers to Franz Ferdinand along the way, but nothing that will land this band in NME hell. '“ TYRONE WARNER
File Next To: Bloc Party, Franz Ferdinand, Kaiser Chefs, any other XTC-inspired band.

More Plastic
What Are Yr Colours Now (Independent, www.moreplastic.com)
So this record was released almost a year ago, which I found out just as I was putting the finishing touches on this review. Sorry. Here goes. More Plastic like the blues. They like blues music from the 60s. They also like the Stooges. Sometimes their singer sounds like Wayne Coyne. They do like to kick out the jams though, except, frankly, it doesn't always sound all that interesting. "Give It On Up", for one, reaches for primal, gritty rock'n'roll but ends up sounding clunky and awkward. To be fair, What Are Yr Colours Now is sprinkled with its fair share of imaginative arrangements '“ a wistful slide part at the start of a song, the hefty belt of a saxophone on the standout track, the rockin' "Running With Blades". Nonetheless, this record, while adequate enough, seems unavoidably innocuous, and is probably best enjoyed with lots of cheap whiskey. - PRASANNA RAJAGOPALAN
File Next To: Blues music from the 60s. And The Strooges

The Most Serene Republic
Underwater Cinematographer (Arts and Crafts, www.arts-crafts.ca)
When I was really young, about seven or eight, there was a kid that was a couple of years older than me. He asked me if I liked Rush and when I said I had never heard of Rush he said that I probably wouldn't get it because I was too young and it was too smart for me. At the time I was all like holy shit! Today when I hear 'œAnd what you say about his company is what you say about society/Catch the mist, catch the myth/Catch the mystery, catch the drift.'? Well, I just crack the hell up. The Most Serene Republic are too smart for me in exactly the same way. They're so smart they're meaningless. They have a hot drummer though, just like Rush. '“ METER PO
File Next To: 'œI rolled an 18 for intelligence.'?

No Wait Wait
s/t (Push Pin, www.pushpinmusic.com)
Singer-songwriter and documentarian Marc Gartman's new album is like a bizarro version of Ric Ocasek produced Weezer, taken over by slo-core king Alan Sparhawk and fronted by a random east-coast power-popper. Reverb-drenched vocals soar in dank midwestern caves, guitars chug along ominously and drums cower somewhere in the background. The Low-like guitars are no accident, as Alan Sparhawk plays on every song on the record, with his wife Mimi Parker dropping in to contribute her beautiful voice and minimalist drums to a few tracks. Gartman also incorporates the ambiguous religious imagery that Low has toyed with in the past. And wouldn't you know it; the album is also released on Sparhawk's own Chairkickers label. I guess you can't blame Sparhawk for leaving his fingerprints all over No Wait Wait's debut after all. Left to his own devices, Gartman might have suffocated his songs with status-quo singer-songwriter production instead of coming through with this gritty gem of an album. '“ TYRONE WARNER
File Next To: Weezer, Sloan, Superchunk.

The Rooster Project
Clusters and Associations (Independent, www.theroosterproject.com)
A drunk driver hit Marty Stelnick when he was twelve years old. Marty broke his spine in three places, suffered from internal bleeding, and was left bed-ridden for almost four years. After a period of depression that lasted six months, he devoted his time almost exclusively to learning how to play the harmonica. Because he was alone between eight and ten hours a day, and seeing how he had suddenly taken to music, his mother spent seventy dollars on a used four-track tape recorder. Over the next five years while in excruciating pain, Marty forced himself to record this painful masterpiece, laying track after track of harmonica over top of his agonized vocals. In the heartbreaking first track, 'œAmplitude Modulation'? he sings 'œyou don't know, don't know, don't know'¦I keep a bottle of tears'?. This wounded masterpiece might be the best Canadian album of the year. Ok, actually Marty was never hit by a car and the album is terrible. '“ METER PO
File Next To: The enduring human spirit

MARINKO JAREB'S HARDCORE ELECTRO CORNER

DJ Iain presents Carole Pope
Transcend (Play Records, www.playrecords.net)
The latest from Toronto house label Play Records, Transcend is a total disappointment. I wanted to love it, support the home team and all, but Carole Pope's post industrial cyberpunk vocals are transformed in countless ways by sixteen uninspired remixers and the results are mediocre at best. The most interesting mixes seem to have only miniscule sprinkles of Pope's vocals. Transcend seems to have been misguided on a deeper level in the sense that many of the remixes are dubiously labelled: for instance, Matt C's 'œTribal House'? mix is more like a progressive track with a canned funky break thrown in and Jamie Long's 'œUnderground House'? mix is fully an electro number (and probably one of the better remixes on the comp.). There is even a mix dubbed 'œAdult Contemporary'? and it's completely formulaic trance shortened to the length of a pop track. Avoid this unless you really love the Pope. - MARINKO JAREB
File Next To: The round file

Jori Hulkkonen
Dualizm (F-Communications, www.jorihulkkonen.com)
Dualizm is Finnish artist Jori Hulkkonen's fifth outing to date with French imprint F.Com, and it digs deeper into jazz than any of Jori's previous work while continuing his explorations of synth pop that began on collaborations with Montreal's DJ Tiga. The album begins with a plastic synth bass warble but leaves behind an artificial landscape with clean piano tones and introduces a lush, emotive jazz ballad, "Science". As acid lines tastefully and fittingly creep up at the end of "Science," it becomes clear that Hulkkonen can make beautiful music and do practically anything as a producer-acoustic or electronic. Dualizm continues with a number of synth-pop influenced electro disco songs. In "Dislocated," Hulkkonen captures a certain melancholy in a cyberpunk theme, exploring the hopelessness of the nature vs. technology dichotomy in a way that is beautiful and not at all preachy. "Lo Fiction" and "Dying In Beauty" have the most dance floor impact, with punchy electro bass lines and swinging rhythms, proving that Jori can still rock a club. With vocal contributions by John Foxx (formerly of Ultravox), Tiga, and Swedish pop star, Jose Gonzales among others, Dualizm is an amazing album, enjoyable from beginning to end. - MARINKO JAREB
File Next To: Deep House/Electro

M.A.N.D.Y.
Body Language Vol. 1 (Get Physical Music, www.intergroove.de)
Electro, though no longer at the height of fashion, remains a very relevant influence in modern dance music. Berlin DJ and production duo M.A.N.D.Y. drop the hottest of electro influenced dance numbers and deeper acid-influenced house on their killer debut mix, Body Language. But it's not all stark broken beats, arpeggiated basslines and vocoders; M.A.N.D.Y. have a talent for finding music with all the right hints of the trendy without getting boring after a handful of listens. This is body music, made for full out parties and dance floor grooving, yet the tempo isn't overwhelming and the sounds are diverse and deep. Body Language comes to two well defined peaks. First, is Slam's conscious number 'œThis World'?, remixed by Robag Wruhme with a highly synthetic tribal sound. Slam's song is the first in a string of six tracks that rock so hard that I find it hard to sit still: Sterac Electronic's 'œDestination Reached'?, Hans-Peter Lindstrom's 'œI Feel Space'?, Francisco's 'œMoon Roller'? and Tiefschwarz' 'œIssst'? '“ sick! Finally, Mathew Jonson's trance inspired electro disco track, 'œBall of Light'?, is the last peak before the mix gets into the deeper, more introspective house music. Body Language is HOT! - MARINKO JAREB
File Next To: Dance floor electro.

Nice Nice
Yesss! (Audraglint, www.audraglint.com)
Portland's Nice Nice have built their reputation on live electronic music created spontaneously and recorded off the floor in one take without any overdubs or edits. With Yesss!, the band embarked on their maiden voyage into studio experimentation; the guitar and drum duo have done an excellent job of controlling the mix, finding the perfect level between tone and feedback, signal and noise. Nice Nice create IDM inspired by R&B and hip hop with dancehall reggae kinks in the rhythms; acoustic instruments, vocal harmonies and synthetic rhythm machines melt into a beautiful controlled cacophony. The title track, Yesss!, entices one to sing along with its simple and catchy hook. A Yesss! remix by Stars as Eyes adds a little funk in the trunk, squeesing more dance floor friendly grooves out of the original while retaining a sense of the experimental. - MARINKO JAREB
File Next To: Aphex Twin gets danceable again

Terre Thaemlitz
Selling (Bottrop Boy, www.bottrop-boy.com)
Selling is a 45 rpm 7'? single, packaged like any other number one "selling" single, with reminders to 'œSay it when you play it'? and 'œ#1 for 3 weeks'?. The back cover is filled with quotes from music magazines offering up blurbs of praise, including "This record is fucked!", a favourite from Rolling Stone. This, incidentally, is exactly what I thought when I threw Selling on at the record shop, and yet I felt compelled to take at home with me. My roommates and I blazed a spliff and I gave them the 'œhere is what I got at the record shop'? tour of the turntable. When 'œThe Dream Will Carry Me'? finally dropped, we totally melted down; the track sounds like Top 40 light rock from the 70's through a digital filter at the 'œsewer'? setting or perhaps even a bad radio playing the weakest AM station. This record is devilish '“ so appealing yet glaringly wrong. It's kind of like a hot woman in a pink piece of vinyl coming onto you '“ she's hot to trot but you've got a girlfriend. Fuck! You know what I'm saying: you're not supposed to like it, but you do. Super dope, we can't get enough! - MARINKO JAREB
File Next To: Glitch Pop or Christopher Cross

Various Artists
Electronic Summer in Corsica (HOOTS Records, www.monteramusic.com)
Corsica, like Spain's Ibiza, is a summer hot spot. Unlike Ibiza however, the French Mediterranean destination isn't all about imported acts from the UK; Corsica has managed to cultivate a vibrant local music scene of its own. This collection gives a taste of the paradise isle's signature summertime sound, and what further separates this album from many is a definition of 'œelectronic'? music that includes a healthy dose of world influences and un-synthesized, acoustic instrumentation. Sounding much like the Buddha Bar releases from George V Records (also from France), the vibe here is a mix of house and down tempo broken beats with a soulful and breezy jazz sound. There are a few numbers that bring up the energy to a dancing frenzy, but most of the disc is dedicated to pure chillaxin' on a crowded beach or in a trendy lounge. - MARINKO JAREB
File Next To: Buddha Bar; ethnic meets electronic